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  1. T

    Need help evaluating a short video skeptical of the IPCC

    Hello fellow skeptics, I've been having a discussion with someone who considers the IPCC to be engaged in some deception, specifically regarding the number of scientists that agree with the report. The following short video was provided as evidence: I'm not very familiar with the details of...
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    Life without water

    The Steven Baxter novel "Titan" involves the discovery of life on Titan. Since water is a solid at the temperatures there, a chemistry based on ammonia and organic compounds like ethane. It's been a while since I read it so I don't recall the details very well. Another possibility is of course...
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    Need an example of decrease in entropy caused by heat input

    Yeah that's a good example. I also considered formation of crystals like diamond under intense heat and pressure, but I don't understand thermodynamics well enough to know if these are examples of an increase or decrease in entropy.
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    Need an example of decrease in entropy caused by heat input

    Indeed, but I was looking for an example of this other than life or a human-made machine.
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    What technology is most likely to take us to the stars??

    I came across this article on Universe Today. http://www.universetoday.com/2009/04/03/warp-drives-probably-impossible-after-all/ Apparently the Star Trek warp drive has some serious problems, not just the fact that we'd need something like 10^45 Joules of energy to do it, but Hawking...
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    Need an example of decrease in entropy caused by heat input

    As I understand it, the example of the rusting of metal causing a decrease in entropy is a case where the matter is losing energy, rather than gaining it. What I'm looking for is something like the way photosynthesis or solar panels work, but something that isn't life or a human designed...
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    Need an example of decrease in entropy caused by heat input

    Thanks for all your responses. I think I dug myself into a bit of a hole with my creationist friend. I realise that our intuitive sense of order doesn't always correspond to the thermodynamic context. Like the snowflake actually being a more entropic form than a blob of liquid water. But I was...
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    Need an example of decrease in entropy caused by heat input

    During a suprisingly civilised discussion with a creationist, the 2nd law of thermodynamics inevitably came up. I explained that the light and heat from the sun is what allows the local entropy on Earth to decrease, but my creationist friend asked me for an example of a reduction in entropy...
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